Snake Venom Ch 34

Chapter 34

“Ugh.”

A short groan from Lee Yeonwoo cut through the space between the two men.

“……”

“……”

Cheon Wooshin shook his head and blinked. His vision fractured, coming together in broken fragments. The headache grew more intense, and his fingertips were quickly going numb with cold.

It all happened before he could even grasp what was going on. Strange warmth pressed against various parts of his body, and Cheon Wooshin slowly lowered his gaze. The nape of the person holding him was unusually pale. As he blinked, a pained voice spilled into his ear.

“Ow, ow…”

Cheon Wooshin propped himself up with a hand on Lee Yeonwoo’s chest. Like a scene playing in slow motion, Lee Yeonwoo’s form gradually filled his vision. A face contorted in pain, lips bitten tightly shut, and stubborn fingers still gripping him despite the impact. His unfocused eyes slowly took in the entirety of Lee Yeonwoo.

“Team Leader, are you okay?”

Lee Yeonwoo called out to Cheon Wooshin, who only blinked in response. His voice echoed in a muffled resonance.

“Can you get up?”

Cheon Wooshin didn’t answer but instead tried to gather his thoughts, which felt as though they were wandering in a thick fog.

The persistent headache was nothing new. He’d been ignoring the fatigue and dizziness that worsened each evening, pretending not to notice until they eventually faded. His real-time heart rate hadn’t breached the danger zone, and his body temperature—though lower since that day—had remained steady.

Unstable but endurable. That’s how he had made it through each day. He’d planned to fall asleep again tonight without truly sleeping…

“Ah…”

With a faint groan, Cheon Wooshin collapsed once more. Lee Yeonwoo hurried to support him, but ended up smothered under his heavy weight, crying out in panic.

“Team Leader!”

Even as his name was called in a voice thick with urgency, Cheon Wooshin couldn’t speak. His lips felt glued shut. That stiffness spread throughout his mouth, slowly clogging both his airway and esophagus. A wave of instinctive rejection hit him. This wasn’t right.

Cheon Wooshin frowned. His thoughts, which could still flail about before, now felt trapped in hardened mud. When his breathing began to falter, a fit of harsh coughing burst forth.

Then, a strange light flickered in his cloudy eyes. His nose twitched faintly.

“……”

Something thin and threadlike seemed to seep into his nostrils. It passed slowly through his membranes and nerves before reaching his brain. The sensation was sluggish but unmistakable—it didn’t drift or wander but found its path as if it had always known it.

What is this?

It was a sensation no prior knowledge or experience could explain.

But the moment it fully permeated his loosened consciousness, Cheon Wooshin knew. Knew it as if he had known it since birth. It was so utterly natural it engraved itself into him.

What Cheon Wooshin had sensed through his olfaction was the pheromone of the half-human, Lee Yeonwoo.

He, a human, had detected Lee Yeonwoo’s pheromone.

That shouldn’t be possible.

An ominous dread—one he didn’t want to accept—slammed into the back of his head. Cheon Wooshin’s eyes widened. The side effects were supposed to emerge consistently after one year. This couldn’t be happening.

“Not just three months in…”

He muttered in disbelief. Words Lee Yeonwoo couldn’t comprehend.

“Uh… um, do you have any medication you’re taking? A chronic illness? Or maybe you’ve had surgery?”

Lee Yeonwoo stammered, trying to pry some clue from him, but to no avail. Without knowing the cause, he couldn’t determine what to do. He decided to call an ambulance first and reached for his phone.

“We need to get to a hospital.”

The phone was on the dining table. Just as he reached out for it, Cheon Wooshin grabbed his wrist roughly.

“No.”

“……”

Lee Yeonwoo’s lips froze as he met Cheon Wooshin’s eyes. The gaze fixed on him was icy and piercing.

“Absolutely not the hospital.”

At the same time, Cheon Wooshin’s scent surged outward. The belated realization of the scent hit like an explosion.

It was a refined aroma reminiscent of a rainy autumn night. That scent, which had occasionally brushed Lee Yeonwoo’s consciousness like a breeze, was now pouring out from all directions. How could the scent of Cheon Wooshin, a human, be vibrating through the air so overwhelmingly? Recognizing the abnormality made it all the more incomprehensible.

Could this really be a cologne? Could something like this truly be an artificial scent? It felt ready to pierce through his very skin—so much that it clouded his mind.

A warning light flared somewhere within him. His instincts screamed to get away from this place. The sense of danger was as primal as survival itself, pounding in his chest, urging him to cover his nose and escape this bizarre influence.

I have to get out.

Just as Lee Yeonwoo was plotting an escape, he froze. It was strange upon reflection. He was reacting as if he’d encountered the pheromone of a pure-blooded kind.

And this was all because of Cheon Wooshin, who was supposed to be human.

Who was undoubtedly human.

So why was he…?

“Lee Yeonwoo.”

“……”

Cheon Wooshin’s voice burrowed into his ears. That crisp and courteous voice he’d once heard in the cold confines of Sodom. It sounded similar, yet somehow wetter, layered with shallow breaths. When Lee Yeonwoo looked up, he instinctively flinched. Those dark eyes looked about ready to fall heavily upon him.

Suddenly, a question Cheon Wooshin had asked three days ago resurfaced.

“Am I human or half-human?”

Lee Yeonwoo felt as though he’d been struck on the back of the head. What he had dismissed as a joke—he finally understood the intent behind it.

The file that Cheon Wooshin had reviewed and Lee Yeonwoo had been assigned to—”Snake Venom”—was a case involving illegal genetic modification through drug injection. It was a biochemical terror incident in which snake venom was altered to forcibly instill the unique traits of half-humans into regular humans. As a result, certain individuals had become addicted to those specialized substances.

Judging from Lee Yeonwoo’s startled expression alone, Cheon Wooshin seemed to realize what he was thinking. He furrowed his brow and exhaled shortly. Despite trying to stay focused, his gaze quickly lost its clarity. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled something out—a small syringe.

Without hesitation, Cheon Wooshin stabbed it into his neck. He pressed the piston gently, and with a faint, unnatural sound, an unknown transparent liquid was injected beneath his skin. He made no attempt to hide the act, and Lee Yeonwoo watched with dilated pupils.

That confirmed it.

Cheon Wooshin was addicted. To a venom that turned him into something neither human nor half-human.

Even with the needle still embedded in his neck, Cheon Wooshin’s expression remained unchanged.

“If you’re curious, wait and ask me directly.”

He’d already said the hospital was not an option. The only team members he overlapped with were Im Sehan and Jung Sooho. Was he hiding this even from them?

As Lee Yeonwoo hesitated to answer, Cheon Wooshin grabbed a fistful of his hair with the same hand that had just discarded the syringe. A small moan escaped from Lee Yeonwoo, who hadn’t yet responded.

“Ah.”

He looked up at the hand gripping his hair. The fingers clenched with such raw, unfiltered strength that it brought tears to his eyes, but Lee Yeonwoo quietly gazed back at Cheon Wooshin. Even in his daze, those cold, sharply honed eyes were staring him down.

“If you don’t…”

Lee Yeonwoo listened intently to his fading voice. Despite the rough handling and fierce glare, the emotion behind it was painfully clear. At this moment, more than ever—it was impossible not to see it.

He was afraid.

And that made sense. The symptoms he was experiencing, the things that awaited him now that he was no longer fully human—none of that could be borne by a single person.

Lee Yeonwoo didn’t avert his eyes and opened his mouth.

“Among team members…”

His tone was forceful, as if preparing to say something more, but he had to pause. Still, these words had to be said.

“Confidentiality is a basic principle.”

Cheon Wooshin held his breath. For a moment, it seemed he was barely clinging to Lee Yeonwoo’s voice to stay grounded.

“I’ll wait and ask you everything directly, Team Leader.”

I promise. He added this like a vow, and the venom that had clouded Cheon Wooshin’s eyes seemed to dissolve into faint relief.

Letting out a slow breath, Cheon Wooshin gradually leaned toward Lee Yeonwoo. Lee Yeonwoo silently watched his profile. Despite his cold body temperature, his barely spoken words radiated warmth.

“For a while.”

He furrowed his brow, his face pale and clearly in danger. Sweat trickled down his forehead and temples. Where was he hurting, and how badly? His clenched jaw and the taut tendons in his neck made the pain unmistakable.

“Until the medicine kicks in.”

Lee Yeonwoo just nodded repeatedly without a word. From the moment they’d met until just before this—Cheon Wooshin had been flawless, unassailable. So free, so capable. And now—he had crumbled. Whatever that venom was, it had reduced him to someone who couldn’t even move a single finger at will. That fact was as shocking as the addiction itself.

With trembling hands, Cheon Wooshin pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. His fingers kept slipping. The screen buzzed with persistent vibrations, displaying a name: “Seolkyung.” The moment he pressed the call button, a sharp voice burst out.

—Why did your body temperature drop so suddenly?! Are you okay? Nothing’s happened to you, has it?